Mainstream Renewable Power (Mainstream) is a leading developer of renewable energy projects worldwide. Our core business is to develop, build and operate renewable energy plants, focussing on wind and solar, thereby helping to build a sustainable future – globally and locally.

Mainstream Renewable Power South Africa has a large wind and solar development pipeline in South Africa. Since December 2011, the company has been awarded preferred bidder status on six wind and two solar PV farms, totalling 850MW, under the South African Government’s Renewable Energy Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). Mainstream will continue to participate in future procurement rounds and has an objective to continue to lead the Renewable Energy industry in South Africa.

In order for Mainstream to position itself and maintain a reputation as the leading renewable energy company in South Africa, it is important to continue to develop positive relationships with external parties, which include but are not limited to government departments, parastatals, NGOs and local communities. For this purpose, Mainstream is seeking to recruit a suitable qualified person to fill the role of Country Community Manager in South Africa.

The Country Community Manager will be responsible for managing all external stakeholder interactions related to Mainstream South Africa’s wind and solar PV development projects.

This role requires the individual to have a proven track record and strong background on ED&SED, but will also expect the candidate to engage all stakeholders, specifically all spheres of government. 80/20 split of time is anticipated, 80% time spend on ED&SED.
Core responsibilities:
• Lead a team of project community managers to:
o Understand and develop community engagement plans and positive interventions strategy during project development.
o Manage third party consultants and support the commercial team, responsible for preparing ED and SED REIPPPP bid chapters, ensuring all relevant information is provided based on knowledge acquired for the specific community during development
o Lead project community managers in ED&SED activities and total community management during construction, in partnership with the construction team.
o Implement ED&SED qualitatively in communities during operations to ensure Mainstreams social licence to operate, in partnership with the operations team.
o Apply all lessons learned throughout the project lifecycle in order to develop a world class company community management system that makes real, positive, measurable and sustainable impact on the communities hosting our projects.
o Identify important corporate and project stakeholders (including government, parastatals, NGOs, local communities) and develop plans to ensure positive relationships with them, using ED&SED as a method to engage.

• Work closely with members of the global Mainstream Corporate Affairs team to create, own and be responsible for implementing and maintaining the Country Community strategy in Mainstream South Africa’s business, across the project lifecycle.
• Manage any third party consultants engaged to advise Mainstream on External Relations and ED/SED, and ensure that advice received is integrated into related work.
• Closely follow government policy and trends in the community/ stakeholders engagement/ED/SED space and recommend changes to Mainstream’s strategy.
• Manage any crisis situations that arise with stakeholders on projects.

Further responsibilities:
• In-depth understanding of the key Socio-Economic needs of the different regions where Mainstream South Africa is active.
• Extensive relationship building and positioning with key organisations/government/officials/individuals locally.
• Identifying key local champions to become third party advocates of projects.

Experience
• The preferred candidate will have experience in the South African development sector in some or all of the following areas:
o Education and skills development;
o Socio-economic development (SED);
o Enterprise Development (ED)
o Food security and agri-support;
o Meeting energy needs (hot water, heating, etc);
o Maths and science development;
o Information Services / Technology (IS / IT) development;
o Women headed initiatives.

• In addition the preferred candidate will have: A minimum of 10 years relevant applicable experience, 5 of which were working unsupervised;
• Worked with SA government and traditional communities
• Worked as a community development / stakeholder engagement / liaison role for the private sector or local government.

Key Skills and Knowledge:
• Knowledge of the renewable energy project development sector and the process to develop utility scale wind and solar projects would be an advantage;
• Knowledge of the SA Government’s renewable power procurement process;
• Understanding and experience of community social dynamics;
• Understanding and experience of local government dynamics;
• Understanding of legal environment for community engagement and development;
• Ability to communicate effectively with local communities;
• Excellent writing and reporting skills, as well as good interpersonal relationships;
• Good communication and presentation skills;
• Good command of English and one other South African language
• Drivers licence.

Education
• Relevant degree (post-graduate qualification preferred).

This position will based at our Head office in Newlands, Cape Town, with intermittent national travel.